The effect of plant size on the phytoliths characteristics of short cells in the leaf epidermis of Dactylis glomerata L.

Abstract

The present study is devoted to the revision of the influence of plant organs size on the size of phytoliths. Phytolith size parameters are used to identify cultivated grasses species in archaeological sites. Understanding how these characteristics are variable is necessary in such studies. The study of the variability of the phytoliths morphometric parameters will increase the possibilities of their use in plant systematics. The article presents a correlation analysis between the average values of the morphometric characteristics of Dactylis glomerata phytoliths from six different habitats with leaf sizes and generative shoots. The cock’s-foot specimens from forest, meadow and anthropogenically disturbed plant communities in the mountainous and plain parts of the south of Western Siberia were studied. Extraction of phytoliths was carried out using dry ashing. The measurement was made using the ImageJ software. Past 4.03 programs was used for statistical processing. The influence of the leaf length on the average values of the parameters of width, equivalent diameter, and inscribed radius of phytoliths of short epidermal cells of leaf was revealed. With an increase in the size of the leaf, the width of the phytolith and the parameters associated with it increase. The length of phytoliths, their area, perimeter, area and perimeter of the described figures weakly depend on the size of the vegetative organs of plants. Key words. Crenate, Dactylis glomerata, morphometry, phytoliths, short cells.